Changed Your Life Well Nearly
by BethSHeartbeat
Summary: With Connie having been arrested, all of her responsibilities have been passed back to Zoe leaving her stressed and with a lack of time. With Max needing to talk to her about something else she did at the ball, will it all end well for Zoe and in the way that Max hopes for? Joint fic with Michaela.
1. Chapter 1

Changed Your Life...Well Nearly

He pulled the duvet back a little, just enough to be able to see slightly over the top of it. The light was blinding in comparison to the darkness that was part of the land of sleep. Reaching his hand out sleepily, what he had already guessed was confirmed. Zoe was not next to him, not that he was surprised. She spent a lot of time awake now a days instead of sleeping, Max continually put this down to stress, especially as she was back in charge of the ED whilst Connie was suspended with the police investigation.

Max rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and got out of bed, he looked at the alarm clock which read 6:30am, another early morning where he wondered if Zoe was down stairs or already at work. He made his way downstairs to find it completely in darkness, he turned on the light and saw a note left on the table, he picked up the note and read  
_"I didn't want to wake you, but I had to make an early start and I've already left for work, see you when you get here love you, love Zoe xx"  
_  
He moved around their new flat with ease as he made himself a slice of toast and a cup of coffee. They'd only been living together a couple of weeks, apart from Zoe's stress levels and the lack of time together, everything was blissful. As he sat at the breakfast bar eating as he watched people walking about outside through the massive glass windows, he couldn't help but hope that Connie got back to work soon so that he could have a proper discussion with Zoe. Ever since the ball he had been desperate to discuss what else she'd done whilst under the influence of alcohol, the thing that he had kept to himself.

He walked over to the sink and washed up his cup and plate, he slipped his coat on and headed outside. He would be at work early but he wanted to check on Zoe and see how she was doing because he was worried about her, her stress levels were hitting the roof and it didn't help that Guy Self was adding to that pressure, he was pretty sure Guy has got it in for Zoe since the ball and this was payback. He reached the entrance of the ED and stepped inside, it was quiet which was good. Zoe wouldn't be stressed yet. He headed to her office and knocked on the door.

"Come in." Came his partner's voice from the other side of the door. Immediately he stepped inside, a mug of her favourite coffee in his hand and a bar of chocolate to keep her sugar levels up. "You don't need to knock Max if the blinds are up." She reminded him as she stood up from her desk and walked around to him. Taking the goods from him she placed them down on her desk. "You can definitely come again if you're going to bring me stuff." She told him before she kissed him.  
"We need to talk Zo." Max told her as she returned to her chair as her phone pinged at her to alert her to yet another email coming through.  
"That sounds ominous. What do you want to talk about?" Zoe asked.  
Max was about to answer when her Blackberry rung "I'm sorry Max it's Guy and I really got to take this call, can we have this chat later, maybe lunchtime?"  
"Sure I will catch you later." Max spoke but Zoe didn't hear him because she was deep in conversation with Guy. He made his way to his cupboard and he couldn't help but think of all the fun times him and Zoe had here, he was hoping they be able to get back to them times pretty soon but I wasn't looking good. Connie has been charged with Alfred murder and even some of the staff were beginning to think she was guilty.

The day seemed to be going quickly, at some point the ED had got busy meaning that all hands were needed. With only a couple of hours until the end of his shift, he decided that maybe it was time for a break. As he walked through the ED he spotted Zoe talking to Dylan at the nurses' station.  
"Have you had a break yet Zo?" He asked, she looked exhausted, the bags around her eyes were becoming too dark for even make up to conceal.  
"No, I don't have time for a break." Zoe insisted.  
"Go Zoe, the ED will not fall apart if you take a half an hour break." Dylan pointed out bluntly.  
"Okay." Zoe turned back to Max and took his hand, letting him lead her back towards his cupboard where there was no work for Zoe to stress over.

Max opened the door and they both stepped inside, Max locking the door after him.  
"I see your interior designer hasn't done much to the place since I was last here" Zoe joked.  
She made her way to chair and literally collapsed on it, Max moved to the table and sat on the edge of it and pulled Zoe's chair closer to him, and he took both of her hands and put them in his to warm them up.  
"That feels so good, I think this is the first time I've sat down since this morning I've never felt so old." Zoe moaned.  
"Zoe you're not old, you're the most beautiful brightest woman I know and that the reason I love you" he leaned in and kissed her.  
"You best stop kissing me, you know what happened last time we were here, and I just don't have the time or the energy for anything at the moment."  
"Zoe listen to me, you are doing an amazing job while Connie is away, and she be back any day now" He told her.  
"Come on Max do you really believe that? They've charged her with his murder, it's going to take a miracle for the charges to be dropped against her."

"Miracles do happen, how do you think I got to be with someone like you?"  
"Through constantly wearing me down."  
"Like I say, a miracle. Stand up a minute." Max told her and then watched as she sleepily stood up. Max took her chair and for a moment she glared at him until he gently pulled her back down. She settled herself on top of him with her head on his shoulder as he wrapped his arms around her.  
"I love you Max." Zoe spoke, yawning quietly as she did.  
"I love you too." He replied. "I'm worried about you baby, you're so stressed."  
"I'm okay." Zoe insisted.  
"Who are you trying to convince, me or yourself?"  
"I've taken tomorrow off to do paperwork in bed. Anyway Max, what was it that you wanted to talk about?"  
"Do you remember the ball?" Max asked gently.  
"We've already established that I don't, I'm certainly paying for it now with Guy though." She sighed.  
"So you don't remember what else happened?" He pushed slightly.  
"Oh god, there's more?"

"Yes there's more, I didn't want to say anything to you, I was hoping you would remember" he told her.  
"I think I've blocked most of that night from my memory, was it good or bad what I did or say?" Zoe asked him  
"Well it depends on your point, for me I think it's good, but might think it's bad if I tell you."  
"Oh god what did I say?" Zoe asked.  
"Well you asked me to marry you Zo" he informed her.  
For a moment Zoe looked dumbfounded he could see her processing it in her mind, she looked at him and he knew she remembered. It was moment before either of them said anything and the quiet was killing him.  
"Zoe don't freak out, you were drunk it doesn't matter if you didn't mean it" he said quietly but secretly he knew that he would be gutted if Zoe didn't mean it because he wanted nothing more than for Zoe be his wife. Zoe was about to answer when a knock came on the door, it was Robyn  
"Max is Zoe in there, we need her!" Robyn spoke. Zoe got up from Max's knee and headed to the door, excellent timing Robyn he thought.

**Hi, this is the first chapter of a joint fic with my friend Michaela ( Michaela_jayne1) we wrote alternate bits. There will be another chapter at some point, enjoy and please leave a review.**

**Beth x**


	2. Chapter 2

Zoe reached for the door and unlocked it, Max followed closely behind. Zoe opened the door and her face dropped at the sight of Robyn, she knew something was wrong.  
"Zoe I'm sorry, I know you're on your break but we've got a RTA coming in involving three people, two are stable and the other one is seriously injured." Robyn informed Zoe.  
"How long until they get here?" Zoe asked.  
"5 minutes."

"Okay, give me a moment and I'll follow you down." Zoe told the junior nurse, who disappeared off in the direction of resus. She turned around to see Max's disappointed gaze staring at her. "I'm needed downstairs, we'll have this discussion later baby." She told him as she leaned forward to kiss him and then she too left.

"Right, Robyn, Ethan and Charlie, you're in resus with me. The two stable patients I want in cubicles." Zoe barked orders as they waited in reception for the ambulances to arrive.

Zoe was waiting in reception when two of the patients came in.  
"Take them to the cubicles, a doctor will be waiting for them" Zoe informed the paramedic.  
Dixie came through the door.  
"Okay what have we got?" Zoe asked.  
"This is Jenna Wade 18 years of age, wasn't wearing a sit belt when the car crashed, did stop breathing but we were able to get a heart beating again, she's got an injury to her head, and I'm pretty sure she could have a broken pelvis" Dixie informed Zoe as they arrived in resus.  
They removed the straps from the board and Robyn and Charlie gathered around.  
"One the count of three... One... Two... Three" said Dixie as they moved Jenna onto the bed.  
"Robyn can you set up a drip and Charlie can you take bloods?" Zoe ordered.  
"Robyn can you get on the phone to X-Ray and CT then page Max, we'll need a porter to take her up." Zoe asked once the drip was in Jenna's hand.  
"I'm on it." Robyn replied.

Max sat outside resus knowing that sooner or later he'd be needed, Zoe and his shift should have finished nearly 15 minutes ago, by this point Zoe had been on for a few hours before her shift had even officially began and now it looked like it would be at least another hour until either of them would be finished. More than anything at that moment, he wanted to go into resus, scoop Zoe up and take her to bed so she could sleep. He needed to finish their earlier conversation but he knew that right now making sure that Zoe got enough sleep was the priority.

Zoe came out of resus and Max knew something must have happened.  
"She was stable then we lost her, it's all my fault" Zoe cried.  
Max walked over to Zoe and pulled her close to his chest. "Listen baby it's not your fault, you did everything you could she was in the best care, it's not your fault" Max told her.  
"Maybe if I was on my game I could have saved her, I've let her down, I've let the department down."  
"Zoe listen to me you did everything in your power, you didn't let her down or the department, come on, I'm taking you home, you need to sleep." Max said.  
"Max I can't, I've got a department to run, I can't just leave."  
"Zoe I've talked to Dylan and he agrees you need rest, he's going to be here to take care of anything that needs doing." Max informed her.  
"That's no point in arguing is there?" Max shook his head, "Okay I've got to go back to my office and get my things."  
"Already done, come on Zo, let's go  
home." Max replied.

He unlocked the door as Zoe checked her Blackberry yet again, only to find she'd received another 100 emails since she'd last checked.  
"Phone." Max ordered and held his hand out.  
"What?" She asked, knowing exactly what he was meaning but looking for something in the way of an explanation.  
"You're never going to switch off and relax if you can see your phone." He explained, "You need to sleep." She handed her phone over so he placed it on their dining room table before he took her hand and led her through their flat to their bedroom. She changed into her night dress and then crawled under the duvet, suddenly the thought of doing anything but sleeping was an unappealing one.  
"Where are you going?" She asked Max, as he left the bedroom.  
"I'll be back in a second, I'm just locking up."  
"We need to talk before we go to sleep." Zoe called sleepily through the large flat.  
"You need to sleep, our conversation can wait until you're properly with it." He replied appearing back in the room before crawling in the bed next to his partner, who immediately turned and snuggled up into him.

Several hours later Zoe opened her eyes and looked across at the bed side cabinet it read 4:30 am, she had had a good 6 hours sleeps, she turned on her side and looked at her partner sleeping. She didn't realise the strain it'd been putting on him, she'd vowed that once she was no longer in charge of the department she would put him first, in that moment she knew she couldn't live without him, she placed her hand on his cheek, the moment she touched him he opened his eyes.  
"Hello beautiful, do you feel better after your sleep?" Max asked.  
"Yeah I feel my batteries have been recharged, thank you baby you were right I needed to sleep."  
"You should listen to me more often!" Max joked.  
"Don't push it." Zoe laughed.  
"What time is it?" max asked.  
"4:30am, so I was thinking we should have this talk that we started in your cupboard." She stated. "And when I say talk I mean I talk you listen." Zoe clarified.  
"Do you want a coffee first?" He asked her gently as he moved to get out of bed.

"Nope, Max are you trying to delay this?" Zoe asked, seeing worry in his eyes. He didn't speak, instead he sat back and lay against the pillows. Zoe reached out and took his hand, squeezing it softly before she began to talk again. "I can vaguely remember that part of the ball Max. I must have drunk a lot by that point because the memory is extremely hazy but even when I'm drunk I don't say things unless I mean them. When I'm drunk, things tend to come out that I'm too nervous to ask sober. So since my memory is so fragmented of those moments, care to remind me of your answer?"

"Well I don't know Zo, it wasn't exactly the most romantic proposal." Max teased but he regretted it when he saw her face. "Zoe of course I will marry you that's all I ever wanted, I knew the moment that I saw you that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you." He leaned over to kiss her  
"Thank god, I thought you were going to turn me down, I might of known you were playing a joke one me" Zoe said.  
"Isn't that the one reason why you love me, because of my sense of humour?"  
"Yes one of the reasons, no one can make me laugh like you do." Zoe kissed Max.  
"I think we should celebrate this happy occasion." Max said.  
"I agree how shall we celebrate?"  
"I can think of a way!" Max smiled.  
The alarm clock went off before Zoe shut it off, it was 7:30 in the morning, she turned over to reach to Max but her fiancé wasn't there which was unusual she always woke up before him. Zoe was about to get out of bed when Max appeared holding a tray.  
"Good morning baby" Max said.

"Max you didn't need to make my breakfast." Zoe spoke, turning the bedside light on and sitting up slightly as she spoke.  
"Who said it was for you?" Max teased as he placed the tray down on her lap. The plate was covered in various breakfast items, most of which she was sure he could not have got from the cupboards of their virtually empty cupboards.  
"Have you been shopping?" Zoe asked, shocked at the prospect that he may have been out at an early time of the morning, despite him usually having detested early mornings.  
"Yeah, today is the day you're going to start looking after yourself and concentrating on you again. You can't do that without eating and eating properly at that." Max told her as he got back into bed next to her and began nicking various items off of the tray.  
"Oi! That's mine!" Zoe moaned at Max.  
"Again, who specified that?" Max teased.  
"You're really looking after me now that I'm your fiancé." Zoe commented quietly as something on the other side of the tray caught her eye.  
"I can't have you dropping dead from stress before I get you up the aisle."

"Imagine how stressed I will be when I start planning the wedding, which reminds me I'm going to have to get some bridal magazines." Zoe informed Max.  
"Who would of thought Dr Hanna would be excited about planning a wedding?" Max joked.  
"Why, isn't every women's dream to get married?"  
"Yes it is, but you're not most women, you nearly freaked out when I produced the box with the lighter in." Max said.  
"That was different we weren't back together then and marriage was the last thing on my mind, but it feels right and I know I want you to be my husband." Zoe said as she took a bite of her toast.  
"You make really happy you know, I love you Zoe."  
"I love you too" Zoe replied as she leaned in to kiss Max. They broke away from the kiss and Zoe noticed the ring box.  
"Oh, this is just like my dream" Zoe whispered to herself not realising Max had heard.  
"What do you mean it's like your dream?" Max enquired.

"Promise you won't laugh?" Zoe asked, a slight begging tone to her voice.  
"Why would I laugh?" Max asked, looking back at the ring box on the breakfast tray, trying to figure out what his wife to be meant.  
"Max, promise me!" Zoe pushed and saw Max nod at her slightly. "Promise...?" Zoe asked once more.  
"I promise I won't laugh." Max replied, staring at her expectantly as she tried to search for the words to explain the dream that she'd had only a few weeks before that wouldn't leave her alone.  
"Do you remember that day that we left the hotel? When I gave you the anniversary card?" Zoe asked.  
"Of course I do, how could I forget the anniversary of our first kiss?" He replied, seeing a smile cross her face briefly as she was reminded of their first kiss.  
"Well I kind of lived that day twice before it actually happened, trust me neither went well but the second time I woke up and you weren't there. Much like this morning, you appeared with a tray of food, only it was evening then, you placed it down on my lap and I know this sounds weird but that ring box, the one on this tray" she began, pointing at the ring box on the tray that was currently resting on the duvet, "it's the same as it was in my dream." She studied Max's face as she finished what she was saying, there was no outward sign that he was trying to hold back laughter.  
"So my fiancé is a psychic as well as an amazing doctor?"

"I wouldn't go that far, but yes I must have known it was coming" Zoe said.  
"And what did you say in your dream?"  
"We actually didn't get to that part, I was so freaked out from the first dream I brushed it off and said we would have this chat after we finished work." Zoe explained.  
"That sounds like you, are you going to open the box?"  
Zoe picked up the box and slowly opened it. Inside was a gorgeous engagement ring and wedding band, the wedding band had diamond all round and the engagement ring was perfect, a single diamond in the middle, Zoe slipped the ring on which fitted perfectly.

She reached over and kissed her fiancé who was staring intently at her. She couldn't quite believe how in the space of a year she had met Max and got engaged for a third time. Never before could she remember falling this hard, Max brought out a new side in her, the side that she'd tried to repress before. Their romance was not formal like the relationships she'd experienced in the past, it was a mutual love and they had fun with it. Nothing seemed too much for them to face together and that's how she liked it. The fun side of Zoe Hanna had reappeared and she was loving it. In the recent weeks this side of her had disappeared again and had been replaced with the stressed clinical lead side who was desperate to get everything right.

"I'm sorry." She finally spoke after what seemed like an eternity of comfortable silence.  
"What for?"  
"Not making time for you since Connie left, I've missed you." Zoe told him honestly.  
"And I've missed you too but it won't be for long Zo and then we have the rest out of lives together." 


End file.
